Senator Bunning Says Guantanamo Prisons Are Like Statue Of Liberty
A great deal about the Republican vision of America was revealed yesterday by Senator Jim Bunning. As Bunning took to the floor to comment on a military spending bill of over 626 billion dollars, he made the following comments:
“Throughout the debate on whether closing Guantanamo is good policy, supporters of the idea have consistently maintained that the facilities serve as a lightning rod for anti-U.S. sentiment and that it is used as a recruiting tool for terrorists. I don’t buy that argument. I would argue that the greatest recruiting tool for these terrorists is the United States itself and our way of life with democracy and freedom of religion. What if it was found that the Statue of Liberty was being used as a symbol to incite attacks on our country? Would we tear it down? Of course not. The United States has suffered many terrorist attacks prior to the opening of the Guantanamo Bay facility, including the horrific events of September 11, 2001. If we close this facility, then those who hate us will simply find another tool of motivation for their followers.”
Senator Bunning’s ideas run here and there, like a toddler chasing a tennis ball without any particular plan for catching it. Senator Bunning first says that terrorists hate the United States because of our freedoms, but Bunning only makes this argument in order to justify the continued suppression of constitutional freedoms by the United States. The prisons of Guantanamo are despised by the global community, as well as by many Americans, because they have been used to inflict cruel and unusual punishments to people who have been made captive without due process and without the right of a fair and speedy trial.
The prisons of Guantanamo are an international symbol of the shameful disintegration of American liberty. Yet, Senator Jim Bunning has the audacity to compare Guantanamo to the Statue of Liberty itself. If Bunning had true respect for freedom, he would realize that the Statue of Liberty and the prisons of Guantanamo are on opposing sides of a cultural struggle in the United States, between citizens who prefer to live in freedom, and people who prefer to live in fear.
